Bill Campbell



Leadership Advice From the late great business man Bill Campbell:

Trust your managers, and make sure they trust their subordinates.

At companies Campbell worked at, he would aim to eliminate tensions between product managers and engineers by building a culture of trust, where managers knew that engineers were in the best position to find a solution and engineers knew managers were in the best position to guide them to that goal.

Know that great products drive success. Everything else is a supporting function.

Campbell was adamant that the greatest marketing in the world was useless if it didn't advertise an excellent product. It's why he was a fierce advocate for granting engineers creative freedom.

Experiment, but never at the cost of your existing business.

Campbell was close friends with Ron Johnson, the Apple executive whose attempt at relaunching J.C. Penney in 2012-2013 failed miserably because, as Campbell said, he tried starting from scratch.

Spend your days doing, not planning.

"Writing a list of things and checking dates and all that, that's a bunch of bulls---, you can take the last 10 minutes of your day and do that," he said.

Your company must have unifying product principles.

Even while evolving, you must ensure that your company retains its unique identity by sticking to fundamental creative principles. "That's what Apple does brilliantly," Campbell said. "Everyone knows where the design principles are trending."

It is imperative that you stop infighting as soon as it arises.

Campbell said that internal warfare "brings companies to their knees" and that it is the CEO's job to end tensions immediately. He said that Apple under CEO John Sculley, before Steve Jobs was brought back in to lead his company, was marked by turf wars and power grabs.

Determine cultural values from the outset and then model them.

Values allow employees to hold each other accountable, and the CEO must embody the values, or else no one will follow them.

Evaluate your managers by what their employees think of them.

Regularly survey your employees to ensure that their managers are upholding the company's values and guiding, rather than interfering with, their work.

Maintain a culture of respect.

Campbell placed prime importance on respect when leading or consulting with a company.


Source: Intuit
For more secrets to success from Bill Campbell, please read his best seller Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Playbook of Silicon Valley's Bill Campbell. available for purchase here.

Photo Credit: Trillion Dollar Coach
The Leadership Playbook of Silicon Valley's Bill Campbell

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